Machine-to-machine (M2M) communication, also known as machine type communication (MTC), is becoming an increasingly critical consideration in the design of future communication technologies. By comparison to traditional services such as voice and web streaming, M2M services often place very different requirements on the wireless network due to the specific requirements specified for these services by Third Generation Partnership's (3GPP's) Long Term Evolution standard and other communication standards. Additionally, wireless networks providing M2M communication services may be expected to serve a significantly greater number of MTC user equipment (UEs) than typical wireless networks. Because of these constraints, there is an increasing need to support efficient and cost-effective wireless M2M communications and to develop a cost-, spectrum-, and energy-efficient radio access technology for M2M applications.
In M2M communications, various types of MTC communication devices such as smart meters, signboards, cameras, remote sensors, laptops, and appliances may be connected to the network. While the functionality and normal operation of these devices may vary, there are several characteristics that many MTC devices share. For example, many MTC devices often transmit information primarily in sporadic bursts of one or a few short packets. These packets often contain information such as measurements, reports and triggers, such as temperature readings, humidity measurements, and wind speed calculations. In many cases, MTC devices are static or have low mobility. MTC devices are typically expected to be low-complexity device that target low-end (low average revenue per user, low data rate, high latency tolerance) applications. The power/energy consumption for MTC devices are normally expected to be lower than typical communication devices as well.
In order to provide effective M2M communication service on a large scale, will require improvements to existing wireless networks. To provide coverage to a large number of MTC devices, a network operator could install a very dense deployment of base stations (including various combinations of macro, micro, pico and femto stations) and relay nodes to increase capacity, or could build very powerful base stations, having advanced receivers and several receiver antennas collecting weak signals from MTC devices. However, these solutions would require significant financial investment and installation efforts. As a result, new techniques are needed that can leverage and/or overcome characteristics that are common in MTC devices to provide efficient solutions for supporting M2M communications.